Reverend Melvin L. Boles

Reverend Melvin's Story

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Funeral services for Rev. Melvin L. Boles will be held Saturday, March 3, 2018, at 1 p.m. at Evangel Temple, with the Revs. Mike Boles, Ronnie Boles, and Kim Culpepper officiating. Burial will be held at Forest Lawn Memory Gardens. Robert Barham Family Funeral Home has been entrusted with the arrangements.
Rev. Boles, 93, of Meridian, passed away Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018.
Pastor Boles was born and raised in the Energy community in Northeast Clarke County. As a child, he often preached sermons of repentance to his classmates at Shady Grove Elementary School. This zeal to reach the lost carried into his early adulthood. He also took up playing the fiddle. Upon receiving the baptism of The Holy Spirit, in the late 1950's, he straightway began to preach the Gospel in a small storefront church. Then he built a church in Southside named Southside Tabernacle where he pastored. Many summers he held "tent revivals" preaching all around the Meridian area, reaching as far as Pensacola, Fla.
Never one without a vision, he prompted his congregation to move to the Tuxedo community. Not long after, he relocated his congregation to the present location on Highway 145, where he helped birth a radio ministry, television ministry, and construction of The Irby-Courvelle Theater. These ministries have impacted thousands and saw as many come to Christ till he retired from full-time ministry in 2002. His legacy lives through the leadership of his son, Michael, the current pastor of The Evangel Temple.
He seldom ever met anyone that he did not tell about Christ and then play the fiddle. He will be greatly missed, but his heritage of faith lives on in everyone he touched.
Survivors include his wife of seventy years, Rosie Lee Boles; daughter, Cathy Kay Culpepper, husband Kim; son, Michael Boles, wife, Debbie; grandchildren, Dusty Culpepper, wife Tori, Jonathan Boles, wife Kylie, Daniel Boles, wife Julie, Jared Culpepper, wife Brandy; great-grandchildren, Mary Ashley Culpepper, Cal Culpepper, Cade Culpepper, Ralie Boles, Avrie Boles, Kynlie Rose Boles, Sophie Kayte Boles, Bradley Boles, Brookley Boles, Haylee Claire Culpepper, Jordan Culpepper, and Emmy Culpepper; and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Paul and Dollie Boles; brothers, Houston Boles, Leo Boles, Larkin Boles, and Mack Boles; sisters, Lucy Taylor, Bessie Irby, Maude Dearman, and Florence Ford.
The family requests memorials are made to the Evangel Temple Building Fund.
Pallbearers will be Dusty Culpepper, Jonathan Boles, Daniel Boles, and Jared Culpepper, Alan Boles, David Boles, Craig Drachenberg, and Charles McGee.
Family and friends may sign the online guestbook at robertbarhamffh.com.
Visitation will be held Saturday, March 3, 2018, from 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at Evangel Temple.